Niccolò Machiavelli
See politics as it is, not as it is imagined.
Niccolò Machiavelli was a Florentine secretary, diplomat and writer who served the republic from 1498 to 1512 and, after his dismissal, wrote The Prince, the Discourses on Livy and the Florentine Histories. He examined politics through how people actually behave, weighing force, fortune, institutions and civic conflict; his name became a byword for ruthless calculation, an image his works complicate.
What does it take to found and preserve a free state among human beings as they really are?
Biography
Niccolò Machiavelli was a Florentine secretary, diplomat and writer who served the republic from 1498 to 1512 and, after his dismissal, wrote The Prince, the Discourses on Livy and the Florentine Histories. He examined politics through how people actually behave, weighing force, fortune, institutions and civic conflict; his name became a byword for ruthless calculation, an image his works complicate.
02 /Philosophy
Virtù is the energy, foresight and adaptability by which a person shapes events; fortuna is the changing power of circumstance that no one fully controls. Machiavelli asks how much of political success depends on each.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Politics without illusions
Follow effectual truth, appearances and fortune through the central chapters of The Prince and test how far its advice reaches.
The PrinceConflict and free republics
Examine how the Discourses turn civic conflict, mixed government and popular judgement into conditions of liberty.
Discourses on LivyArms and citizenship
Read The Art of War as a political argument linking military discipline, citizen soldiers and the stability of a state.
The Art of War